In the evening, Ron and Li Mei discuss how to deal with the current situation.

"General Li Mei, I have an idea." Ron said.

"Ah, General Ron, well, let's not be too polite. Either I'll call you Ron, and you'll just call me Lee. Li Mei said, "Ah, you said you have a way?" I knew your head wouldn't disappoint. Let's talk about it. ”

"Well, I'm going to ...... it like this"

"As a result, there are fewer escort fighters to follow the bombers. If there are missile attack aircraft that have slipped through the net, there will still be trouble. ”

"We can give each bomber group a small number of fighters, which should be enough to deal with such a small group of ju88s. It's just that that jet is still a problem. Thankfully, these aircraft are now available in limited quantities. Their current numbers are not enough to change the whole situation. We must seize this opportunity. For this, I need command of all long-range fighters throughout the UK. ”

"Well, what do you need me to do?"

"I need you to go with me and ask General Arnold for this power."

"I would be happy to join you in making this proposal to General Arnold. I think I have the opportunity to witness a truly strategic air offensive. ”

……

"My friend, come and see this plan." General Arnold handed a document to another general.

/a/book/read/novel ybdu

The general took the document, read it carefully, and handed it back to General Arnold.

"Young people are growing up so fast these days. It makes me feel old. ”

"This young man has asked me for temporary command of the entire fighter force in Britain. My friend, tell me, what do you think of this plan of his? ”

"It is full of high-spirited and enterprising spirit, and at the same time, the analysis of problems is very sharp, and the measures are also very effective. I love it. ”

"I knew you were going to love this plan, and it was as imaginative and aggressive as your plan for the air raid on Tokyo. However, this child's qualifications are still a little shallow. I would like to ask you to go to England as my representative and help those children. ”

……

"Ron, the old man agreed to our plan." Li Mei waved the message she had just gotten and shouted to Ron.

"Okay, we'll get ready right away." Ron also became excited, "We'll go to the headquarters right away and count it with the commander." ”

"The old man has also sent a new commander to our Eighth Air Force."

"Who is it?" Ron asked, a name vaguely in his mind.

"A madman, look at it." Li Mei handed the message to Ron.

Ron opened the file, looked at it, smiled, and said, "I knew it was him." ”

"So we'll have to wait a little longer, until our new commander arrives."

……

Two days later, the command of the 8th Air Force.

Ron appears in the commanding officer's office of the Eighth Air Force.

"You're Ron?"

"Yes General!"

"I'm so young, compared to you, I suddenly feel like I'm going to become an old man." The new commander of the Eighth Air Force, Lieutenant General Doolittle, laughed.

"General, you have always been my role model." Ron said.

Ron didn't say this out of complete politeness and welcome, but because General Doolittle was a legendary hero.

In that year, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, severely damaged the American Pacific Fleet, and defeated the American army in the Philippines, resulting in low morale in the United States. President Roosevelt proposed that the Japanese should be given a powerful look by taking the initiative to attack. But at that time, the U.S. Navy suffered heavy losses, and everyone felt that there was no way to fight back.

At this time, General Doolittle creatively proposed a plan to use the Navy's aircraft carrier to bomb Tokyo with the Army's B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, and personally led the team to implement it, and finally achieved great success. This victory not only greatly boosted the morale of the American people, but also directly led to the later Battle of Midway, which became a turning point in the entire Pacific War.

"I've seen your plan." Doolittle said, "There's a quote in there, and I love it. That is, 'the duty of a fighter is to destroy the enemy in air combat'. I have ordered all squadrons to hang banners in their war rooms with this phrase written on it, in place of the original phrase 'All the actions of the fighter unit are to protect the bombers.'" ”

When Ron saw Doolittle mention this, not only did the corners of his mouth begin to hook upward, but his eyes also lit up. It seems that his fondness for this idea definitely comes from the heart.

However, this is also normal, because in the original history, it was General Doolittle who proposed this idea. Even Ron's entire early clearance tactic was proposed and personally commanded and executed by General Doolittle in the original history. It was precisely by relying on this tactic that the US Army Air Corps broke the backbone of the Luftwaffe in just one week after that, and completely grasped the air supremacy over Germany.

"You're thinking the right way for me, it's like I made it myself. So, as soon as General Arnold offered me to be the commander of the Eighth Air Force, I immediately agreed. Go ahead and do it, I've got your back! ”

General Doolittle stretched out his hands and pressed them on Ron's shoulders, pressing them hard again.

General Doolittle's frank attitude made Ron feel a little ashamed. Because his plan is actually completely copied from Doolittle. Relying on the tactics of plagiarism, it was praised by the original owner of the intellectual property. Ron's face wasn't thin, but it was still a little hot.

General Doolittle noticed that Ron's face began to turn red after the compliment, a discovery that made General Doolittle happy. It is really ...... that a young man who is a hero who has become famous in the army would show such an expression when he is praised by others It's so cute. In Doolittle's eyes, Ron suddenly became a big boy.

Unlike Li Mei, who was born in the grassroots, Doolittle was already a wealthy man before the war. He was already an executive at Shell Oil at the time and had a good income. Rejoining the U.S. military is not about climbing the ranks. In fact, in its original history, as soon as World War II ended, General Doolittle immediately chose to retire and return to Shell Oil as vice president. To be honest, this position is much more promising than being a general.

Therefore, when General Doolittle found that someone had a very similar way of thinking to himself, but he was a little ahead of him, he naturally did not have any bad thoughts, on the contrary, there was some taste of sympathy.

"Come on, tell me what you think." General Doolittle said.

……

August 25, 1943, was a day that would go down in the history of the U.S. Army Air Corps and the most important day in the history of European air warfare. Because from this day, a decisive air battle of unprecedented scale and far-reaching impact began.

At 5 o'clock in the morning, the sky was just showing a little white. German Captain Simon was bored in front of the radar screen. He had just replaced Fritz, who was on night duty. Because the air force had dealt a heavy blow to the Americans a few days ago, the Americans are now moving much less during the day, and many of their planes have joined the night bombing of the British. So these days, the day shift is very easy,

But suddenly, the instrument also kept issuing warnings. Some staggering numbers have been reported.

Simon has not seen this situation, and when those American bomber groups launched the so-called "thousand-plane bombing", the radar reacted like this. Compared with the previous bombing, the time of the American sortie this time was more than an hour earlier. Aren't the Americans giving up after the losses they suffered in the previous days?

It didn't take long for Simon to realize that something was wrong. Because these thousands of targets are flying too fast. Obviously, these guys, not bombers, they are all fighters!

"Damn, what are these Yankees doing? What are they sending so many fighters for? And what about their bombers? ”

It's not just Captain Simon who is asking this question. Almost all the officers of the Luftwaffe asked such a question in their hearts.

However, for the Luftwaffe, there is now an even bigger question, and that is, whether German fighters will rise into the air, and when.

……

Rodriguez, with his squadron, a full 24 P-51 fighters, was crossing the English Channel. In his immediate vicinity, there were entire brigades, and even entire wings, the entire Eighth Air Force, and even almost all the fighters belonging to the Allied forces, including the Spitfires of the British, huge fleets, covering the entire sky. The planes are now shining silvery in the light of the rising sun.

The other day the troops received a notice to wash off the paint of the fighters in all places, except for the signs, in order to reduce weight. So now all the P-51s are showing their true colors of aluminum alloy and are running wildly naked. When we received this order, someone asked if this was sacrificing concealment so that the enemy could easily discover us. The above immediately made this answer: "We are sterile to hide, we are not afraid of the enemy, the only thing we are worried about is that those dog mongrels do not dare to take the initiative to come and die." ”

In this operation, Rodriguez was tasked with maintaining a presence in the A3 area, clearing all air targets, and if he found a large enemy fighter fleet, he would call the command center and ask them to deploy other fighter squadrons, or even fighter groups, to clear these targets.

The A3 area, which was the deepest patrol air domain in Germany, was assigned to Spitfire and P-47 with auxiliary fuel tanks, while the P-38 and P-51 squadrons, equipped with a long range, were responsible for clearing the airspace in such areas deeper into enemy territory.

Rodriguez's eyes widened, looking around. Where is the enemy now?